ITALY

Node Candidate Name: Advanced Light Microscopy Italian Node

The Italian ALM Node Candidate is a large multi-modal and multi-sited Node Candidate that comprises five imaging facilities located in Naples, Genoa, Padua, Florence and Milan. These facilities have a long experience of mutual interaction and collaboration. The Node Candidate is coordinated by the Institute of Protein Biochemistry, Naples, an institute belonging to the National Research Council of Italy. The Node Candidate provides open-access imaging services to both academia and industry and serves about 1000 users annually. While each location provides access to a wide range of technologies, they also specialize in one or two specific technologies as listed below. The Node Candidate offers a complete service package starting from sample preparation and imaging to final image analysis, quantitation and visualization.

Specialties and expertise of the Node Candidate

The facilities of this Node Candidate offer a broad range of services but they specialize in particular in the following technologies and research areas:

The member groups also have experience with a wide spectrum of model systems including mammalian cell culture systems, insect cell culture systems, and model organisms like Drosophila and mouse

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Offered Technologies

Deconvolution widefield microscopy

Laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM)

Multiphoton systems

Spinning disc confocal systems

Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRF)

Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS)

Fluorescence-lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM)

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)

Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP)

Raman Spectroscopy

High Throughput Microscopy

Electron microscopy

Selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM)

4Pi

Ground state depletion microscopy (GSD)

Photo activated localization microscopy (PALM)

Stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED)

Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM)

Additional services offered at the Node Candidate

Support in experimental design

Technical assistance to use the microscopes

Practical training courses

Cell culture facilities

Wet lab space

Animal facilities

Data processing and analysis

​​Instrument highlights

The members of the Italian ALM Node Candidate are also involved in the development of novel imaging methods, instrumentation and reagents. These include:Naples: FRET-based methods to detect large multi-molecular complexes, Raman microscopy, image analysis methods and microfluidics Genoa: various aspects of super-resolution microscopyPadua: probes for functional imaging of intracellular ions and metabolitesFlorence: functional imaging and Raman imagingMilano: High-throughput microscopy